If Microsoft needs a lesson on how to do identity management wrong, it needs only look at its past.

With Passport, Microsoft had exactly the wrong approach as the software maker needlessly stepped between businesses and their customers--so says Kim Cameron, the identity expert who leads Microsoft's current effort, known as InfoCard.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday touted InfoCards as one of the technologies that could finally help cement the death of the username and password as the means of verifying identity on the Internet. (full article)